sibling reminiscence

i forget to appreciate airplane travel sometimes, and then i listen to comedians like this.

and then i fly to cape town, for family birthdays and catch ups.

over 1200km away.

it's a place of contrasting significance for me, made up of memories and present-day attachments.

like the house i used to live in as a student, which is now a motherly-decorated second family home.

or the streets i used to drive along to visit friends i don't see that often anymore.

and the imposing central mountain i've only climbed once.

i look at, and remember all these things, because for me, cape town is still that city i love to visit, but struggle to live in.

not because of anything aesthetically related, but more because of the person i remember being there.

a lost, confused, identity-seeking student/unemployed but-occupied, sleep-loving slob.

not that all students are lost. 

take my sister for example, whose 21st birthday was last week, and whose throw-down midnight in the garden of good and evil shindig took place on saturday night.

at obz-sessions on lower main road, observatory. in a refurbished and reformed church building.

in comparison, my sister is the student i was not. but often wanted to be.

successful despite her occasional doubts, she is dedicated and highly sociable.

so sociable that over a hundred people gathered in various degrees of clothing to celebrate her day of key-receiving. with snacks, wraps and slush puppy + cane cocktails.

that twirled, sludged and shifted in red, white and blue, in the never-ending corkscrew twisting of the humming slushy machine.

they all made the effort to dress up, and quietly held their bladders while listening to over an hour of entertaining speeches.

by friends from high school who held back from sharing the gory details, to the varsity besties who laid bare all megan's party habits.

(tc's, boys and a certain pair of invaluable assets)

then, our brother' jamie's speech, given in a bizarre but hilarious combination of cruella de ville hair, red horns and priestly gear.

a speech orientated around the selection of hundreds of photos, downsized from thousands.

(parties, friends, kissing and hand pointing)

with the addition of home videos, painstakingly collected, cropped and edited to show megan arriving as a bundled new born into our family, and her various quirky facial expressions and funny behaviour as a spiral-maned toddler.

(in one video i'm watching as she acts like a camel with a pink panther doll on her back. and laughing)

all these made me realize how much time has actually passed.

and how much i have forgotten, or chosen not to remember. solo jaunts across the seas have made me more aware and appreciative of my growing family though.

which i know my father felt as well, as he fondly recalled the days when megan was small enough to snorkel on her brothers' backs.

in his speech, which he struggled to read in the dark, previously-church interior.

and i'm glad, regardless of the few pitfalls of living away from home, that megan has had the opportunity to live life in the mountain city.

like we all did.

and even though i missed my flight on friday, and had to sacrifice some of my hard-earned half-day pay to upgrade to the next one, i am glad i was there.

to draw 'meg's 21st' on the banner and the papered tables.

to take photos against the stained glass window good/evil booth.

to wear a pink wig and a costume that no one recognized.

(jessica rabbit)

and to really appreciate a side of my special sister i am only just beginning to get to know.

the grown-up, almost professional physio side.